Divorce involves an intertwining of complex emotional, financial and legal issues. With these very diverse fields involved, why do most divorce attorneys pretend to be experts in all of them? The truth is that no single professional has the range of skills to address each issue involved in a divorce as comprehensively as is necessary for the best divorce outcome.

Then how does someone get the encompassing legal service they deserve during a divorce?

Collaborative divorce offers the answer. A key component in the collaborative process is the involvement of outside professionals. The collaborative divorce process offers a range of specifically trained experts who are utilized based on your family’s specific needs. They can include financial specialists, divorce coaches, and child specialists. These professionals have received the same unique training in the collaborative process that your attorneys have. They are usually local professionals who have assisted in the collaborative divorce process many times before.

These professional neutrals are present at meetings with both spouses and both attorneys to assist in attaining the healthiest and most fair divorce negotiations. They lend their expertise to specific areas of the divorce to help with issues that the attorneys and spouses are not experts on. They can be especially helpful in cases involving children, as they can develop an unbiased opinion of what is best for the children in each specific divorce case.

Their professional assistance is also helpful in divorces involving unique financial considerations. Cases involving a shared business between the spouses or other assets are best handled with a trained financial professional sitting right at the table with both parties.

What may also come as a surprise is that professional experts assist in making the divorce process more efficient and less expensive. In a litigated divorce, both spouses and their attorneys have to pay for their own experts to testify against experts on the other side. This means twice the experts and twice the money. There is also a long process of preparing the experts for court that wastes more time and money. When you have the right team available to help with the issues, the divorce process moves quickly and economically and at a higher level of sophistication. That’s why — paradoxically – a collaborative divorce generally costs less, not more.

The ability to have trained professionals join the divorce negotiations in a non-adversarial manner is an unrivaled advantage of collaborative divorce, and one that could make the difference in your divorce.